Studio: How Course Content Is Preloaded

We want courses to play as smoothly as possible, so Articulate Studio preloads slides to prevent interruptions. Here’s how slides and assets are downloaded as learners navigate through a course.

How Slides Are Preloaded

1. Studio loads the first slide so the course can begin playing right away.
2. Studio tries to anticipate where learners will go next based on the slide order and branching features in PowerPoint, Presenter, Quizmaker, and Engage. Studio then preloads the next three slides so learners won’t experience delays. Here are some examples.
   
   In a linear course, Studio preloads slides 2-4 while learners interact with the first slide.
   
   If the first slide gives learners the choice of branching to, say, five other slides in the course, Studio preloads the first three of those branching slides. In a branching scenario like this one, you might want to avoid putting heavy objects, such as video files, on the first slide for each branch in case learners choose a slide that Studio hasn’t preloaded.
   
   If the learner chooses a different path and jumps to a slide that hasn’t preloaded yet, Studio immediately loads that slide so it’ll start playing right away. Then the download logic starts over, and Studio preloads the next three slides from the learner’s current position in the course.
3. Slides continue to download according to the slide order and the path learners take through the course. Studio tries to keep three slides preloaded to prevent playback delays.
   
   Slides download one at a time, not simultaneously. For example, Studio won’t preload slide 3 until slide 2 has finished downloading. If a slide has lots of heavy objects or a learner’s internet connection is slow, the learner might see a brief pause in playback if Studio hasn’t had time to preload all the assets before he or she arrives at the slide.

How Assets Are Preloaded for Each Slide

Assets for each slide download in this order: 1) images, 2) audio tracks, 3) videos.

Note that videos preload like other assets in Studio 360 courses. However, in Studio ‘13 HTML5 courses, videos don’t preload; they progressively download so they can begin playing as soon as possible.